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Undead
Units Zombie The builder and miner of the undead. It doesn't build very fast but it is dead cheap and can transmit diseases while fighting. Skeleton Being the basic fighter of the undead, its true strength lies in its ability to instantly upgrade to a stronger unit, provided you have the tech and resources to do so. On its own, it is worthless (although it has some merit in overwhelming arrow towers since it is nearly invulnerable to piercing attacks). You can upgrade it to the wight and the wraith. Wight This little sword-and-shield guy is the first level-up from a skeleton, and it is much, much stronger. It can withstand quite some of punishment for a tier two creature due to its resistance to slashing damage. When fully upgraded with damage and armor upgrades, it even has some use in the late game as cheap meatshields. Watch out for crushing damage dealing enemies, though. A group of these can dominate early on in the game. Can be upgraded to the Liche and Slayer Knight. Wraith This floating, ice damage dealing creature is the other upgrade possible from the skeleton and would be nearly useless if not for one very interesting ability: if it slays an enemy, it leeches all its experience! Yes, that includes heroes. So use an army of these (costs some crystal) and hunt down the enemy hero, and you have an instant level 20 juggernaut at your command! Can be upgraded to the stronger and faster ghost. Gets a combat bonus when fighting at night. The biggest drawback of the wraith is its vulnerability to physical attacks, at a time in the game when most attacks are physical. So be careful with them. Luckily, they can outrun most enemies. Shadow The upgrade from the wraith, these are faster, stronger, more resilient and more badass. They retain the awesome ability to leech the experience from slain enemies and they can attack flyers. They deal cold damage and can freeze an enemy upon a critical. Shadows really shine when an enemy has done an XP upgrade on its creatures (for example, the fey). When they kill a creature, they will level up and heal immediately. This makes them very difficult to kill. Lich The evil spellcasters of the undead, these guys are the damage dealers of your army. They do not have much hit points and are vulnerable to crushing damage (just like most of the undead), but their damage output makes up for that! Flinging fireball after fireball, four or five of these can demolish an entire base. A group of slayer knights supported by a couple of these is almost unstoppable. They can also summon skeletons from fallen soldiers around them, that can then be upgraded to more advanced soldiers just like any skeleton. This allows you to instantly replace your losses (if you have the resources), even if you don't have a necromancer hero. They also have the coolest voices of the entire game. To the harvest! Slayer Knight A wight can be upgraded to the slayer knight, which will cost you a lot of metal but will net you the first of the undead knights. They are very strong but watch out for crushing damage dealing enemies! Especially catapults are the bane of these creatures, since they are very slow and thus have difficulties moving out of the way. In early tier three, have two of these support a group of whights and liches for their status effects on the enemy. In the end game, have a group of these and a group of liches, then, when the slayer knight is badly wounded, transform him into a fully healed Doom Knight to surpise the enemy! Doom Knight The champion of undead forces, the Doom Knight, is a sight to behold. Slow but unstoppable, it will cleave through wave after wave of enemy forces, bringing terror and death. It is resistant to slashing and piercing (ánd it is not vulnerable to crushing, like the other undead), so it can hold out for a long time. With upgrades, it is about as powerful as the minotaur king! It can even be upgraded to do triple damage against humans. Bring a couple of liches for support and you will have the ultimate undead army. But watch out for catapults! Their stunning attacks will render the doom knight useless. Bone Catapult The siege weapons of the undead. I usually don't bother with them and use liches instead (faster and fire damage), but they can be very effective. Vampire The general of the undead, this one is a little bit of an underdog. It is the only not-flying undead unit that has to be bought at a building instead of upgraded from the skeleton. Its weakness to physical attacks is a bother, but its vampirism ability (what's in a name) makes it effective in one-on-one duels with others. They can summon bats for scouting, However, at this time in the game the whole map will probably already be discovered. Buildings Strategy The Race The undead are a very unique race in that most units are not bought from buildings, but upgraded from skeletons. This has a lot of implications for the way that this race is played. It means a lot of micromanagement and is quite expensive, but the experienced player will turn this quirk into an advantage that will tip the scales in his favor. The biggest disadvantage of the undead is that they require a lot of resources. Especially metal is very much wanted. So capture as much mines as possible (luckily, the early undead units are quite good and can dominate the map) and fill them with zombies! Use wights as defenders for your hero. Have a group of wraiths roam the map, looking for the enemy hero and take him down if you can. They should be fast enough to do so. If you succeed, this will mean more mines for you (since the enemy isn't able to capture new ones for a long time) and an experienced wraith for you! In most cases, this will mean game over for the enemy. The ability to upgrade your units into stronger ones can be exploited when you wait untill they are nearly defeated. This is because upgrading will heal the unit completely, bit will retain its experience. This adds some micromanagement but will make for a nasty surprise, when you turn the tide of battle by upgrading your almost-dead slayer knight into a fully healed doom knight! Heroes Quite obviously, a hero with the necromancy spell ability is a good choice for the undead. Being able to summon zombies to instantly fill your mines is a big plus, and his ability to summon skeletons (more for every spell level!), which is useless in any other race, is very good if you can upgrade them to stronger fighters. This means that you can instantly replace a slain army, anywhere on the map. Always use a portal when summoning: this will increase the level of every necromancy spell cast with 1 (thus, 2 zombies instead of 1 etc.) Undead can't trade for resources, while they need a lot of metal. This is a big problem, but it can be circumvented by having a hero with the alchemy spell list. Cast the transmute spell and you can trade all you need. All in all, I think an undead alchemist might be the best hero for the undead, but it has one major disadvantage: it has no access to the necromancy spell list until after level 25 or so. However, if you can hold out untill then (perhaps by using your 'create item' alchemy spell to get a necromancy tome, which gives you 3 spell levels necromancy) your reward will be a hero that will perfectly augment an already powerful race. Counters - Crushing damage. - Vurnelable in early game. Hero Stats Lore